Recent attempts at making children's toys more realistic include providing the toys with a variety of sound-producing devices to emulate a sound normally associated with that toy. For example, toy aircraft, land vehicles, and the like would be equipped to produce engine-like sound; in a similar fashion, dolls and stuffed animals are sometimes provided some form of "squeaker," or a small phonograph playback device that voices a small library vocabulary upon the push of a button, pull of a string, etc.
All such sound emulation toys, however, have for the most part one common characteristic: The toy must usually be manually manipulated to activate the sound emulation device; thus, the toy must be pressed, poked, or repositioned in some way for sound actuation. Further, when voice is desired, only a very small repertoire can be provided, otherwise the cost of the toy cannot be kept within reasonable limits.
There are, of course, computer-based voice synthesis apparatus--some operable in response to voice actuation. However, such apparatus is usually too expensive, precluding their use in a child's toy.